Saturday night at Dante’s, Mega Bog opened with an unpredictable set of hypnotic and strange avant-pop. On tracks like like “Aurora/99,” the band’s hushed vocals, twangy guitar, jazzy percussion, unhinged, wailing clarinet, and constant tempo changes sounded like floating around the cosmos dodging asteroids. Mega Bog’s live set is the musical equivalent of walking in a minefield—it’s entirely unclear what’s going to happen next. Cate Le Bon and her band took the stage wearing bizarre eyeliner that looked similar to that of Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange (she’s also sporting it on the cover of her new album, Crab Day). They perfectly executed the nuances of her weird, angular guitar pop, particularly on new songs like “How Do You Know?”—the mathematically precise outro is over a minute long on the recording, but live it felt like an hour as Le Bon and her band stared vacantly ahead. She periodically cooed “thank you” between songs, and after an encore that included a cover of Richard Hell’s “Time” she threw a giant stuffed elephant into the crowd before bailing. Surprisingly, no one claimed it.
More photos after the jump!
CATE LE BON
MEGA BOG
